Durgapur: India’s first private green-field Airport set up in collaboration with Changi International Airport of Singapore and promoted by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd( BAPL) will take wings tomorrow when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flies to New Delhi from Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport at Andal near Durgapur.
The first flight from Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport will be taken off with the Prime Minister and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju on board an Indian Air Force aircraft that will fly straight to New Delhi.
The Prime Minister will arrive at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport by a special Air Force aircraft today from Chhattisgarh. Mr Modi will inaugurate the refurbished IISCO plant at Burnpur in Bardhaman tomorrow. According to sources in ‘Nabanna’, the new state secretariat, “files on Bardhaman were despatched to New Delhi on May 5”.
From Burnpur, the Prime Minister will leave for Andal by helicopter the same day.
From Andal, Mr Modi is scheduled to leave for New Delhi by the same air force aircraft that had brought him to Kolkata from Chhattisgarh Burnpur is part of the constituency of BJP MP Babul Supriyo (known to be a Modi favourite).
CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that the airport is ready for commercial operation from May 18 with Air India subsidiary Alliance Air operating an ATR-48 aircraft. The 48-seater plane will fly between Andal and Kolkata, putting the industrial belt on the air map.
Though an air strip existed earlier, it was privately owned by the Indian Iron and Steel Co prior to its takeover by Sail.
Ms Banerjee said Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport at Andal is India’s first green-field airport. Seventeen such airports were announced to be set up in India but only the Bengal project was completed.(UNI)
